As the value and use of information increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available for such a purpose is the information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. Variations in information handling system build and capabilities allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems may be equipped with ports for coupling to external devices, such as power adaptors, external hard drives, flash drives, external speakers, and the like. Information handling systems may deliver power to and/or receive power from external devices coupled to ports. For example, external power delivering devices may couple to ports of the system in a high-power mode, to deliver power from the external device to the information handling system. External power consuming devices may couple to ports of the system in a low-power mode, to receive power from the information handling system.
An external device coupled to a port of an information handling system may be damaged if voltage, current, and/or power is applied beyond a tolerance of the device. Power path protection circuitry may protect ports of the system and external devices coupled to the ports from damaging voltage, current, and/or power from components within the system, such as a system battery, or external power delivering devices coupled to other ports of the system. Power path protection circuitry may require multiple redundant components to provide backup power protection if a component fails. Redundant components in power protection circuitry, however, can increase cost and size.
Shortcomings mentioned here are only representative and are included simply to highlight that a need exists for improved information handling systems, particularly for power protection circuitry in information handling systems. Embodiments described herein address certain shortcomings but not necessarily each and every one described here or known in the art. Furthermore, embodiments described herein may present other benefits than, and be used in other applications than, those of the shortcomings described above.